User:Waygugin/Three Story Pagoda, Hwaeomsa

The Three-Story Pagoda or Four-Lion Three-Story Stone Pagoda is located at the South Korean Buddhist temple of Hwaeomsa, in Gurye County, Jeollanam-do. One of the great masterpieces of the non-typical style, it is registered as National Treasure 35 with the Cultural Heritage Administration. The provenience of the pagoda is uncertain. Sources written during the Joseon Dynasty such as the Hwaeomsa Chronicle credit the pagoda to the Silla monk Jajang, who lived during the Three Kingdoms period. Most modern scholars, however, consider this to claim to be spurious, as the sculptural style indicates a construction date sometime between the mid-8th to 9th century, during the Unified Silla period.

The pagoda is composed of a two-tier platform, a three story body and a finial. The upper section of the platform consists of the statue of a figure draped in Buddhist robes surrounded at the corners by lions. Opposite the pagoda stands a stone lantern dating to the same period, inside which is a kneeling figure who appears to be giving offerings. By tradition the later statue is said to be a depiction of the monk Yeongi, the founder of Hwaeomsa, while the former represents his mother.

Description
The three-story pagoda is located to the southwest of Gakhwangjeon Hall in a clearing called Hyodae (孝臺, Terrace of Filial Piety). It is surrounded by camellia trees and can be reached by climbing a flight of 108 stone steps. The use of the name Hyodae goes back to at least the late 11th century, where it appears in the poem A Stay at Hwaeomsa of Jirisan.

"寂滅堂前多勝景, A fine view from the plateau of tranquility,

吉祥峰上絶纖埃, Not a speck of dust fetters Mount Gilsang,

彷徨盡日思前事, As I wander on this day, dwelling on the past,

薄暮悲風起孝臺. The day grows dark, while sad winds blow from Hyodae."

- Uicheon

Made from granite and measuring 7.1 m in height, the pagoda is composed of a two-tier platform, three-story body, and a finial. Opposite the pagoda is a stone lantern, and between them, a rectangular altar stone. The three pieces are arranged in a near straight line, their relative position in the clearing and the sculptural techniques employed, suggest that they were constructed concurrently.

Platform


The pagoda sits on a layer of square slab stones that rest directly on the ground. The lower tier of the platform is formed from wall and cover stones fit together onto a three layered base, with pillars carved into the four corners.

The walls measure about 4.2 m across, made up of panels sculpted with low relief images of apsaras arranged horizontally in sets of three on each side. Those in the central panels are performing a ceremonial dance, while the remainder are playing musical instruments. From left to right these are: a lute (dangbipa) and reed mouth organ (saeng) on the east side; a bamboo transverse flute (hoengjeok) and harp (gonghu) on the north side; a pan flute (baeso) and wooden clapper (dongbal) on the west side; and a hourglass-shaped drum (yogo) and piri on the south side.

The apsaras are seated on lotus pedestals and adorned with crowns and jeweled necklaces. Their celestial garments appear to flutter through the air, as billowing sashes create the sensation of movement. The apsaras' lower garments are rendered like silk, but they are otherwise bare from the waist up, their navels clearly visible.

On the upper tier of the platform there is a statue of a lion at each corner. Each one faces outward from the center and functions as a column, precluding the need for walls and creating a large open space under the pagoda body. There are two lions of both sexes-each statue positioned opposite a lion of the other sex on the opposite corner of the platform. Adorned with jeweled necklaces around the necks, the lions' hind legs are crouched while the front are extended and the feet open. Each lion's mouth and head have been sculpted differently, with Heo and Cheon et al. write that the lions are together pronouncing the phonemes of the mystical syllable aum. This can be seen by starting from the front and moving around the pagoda counterclockwise. The lion to the left is saying a, its mouth open wide and bearing its sharp teeth. The lion to the right, whose mouth is open less prominently, is saying u. The next lion's mouth is open just barely enough to say m, and the last one's mouth is tightly clenched, suggesting a contemplative silence.

The lions are seated on round pedestals and support capitals on their heads. The pedestals are sculpted with layered lotus petals on the hemispherical lower section while the inverted upper section is single petaled. The capitals are single pieces also sculpted with lotus petals. Atop the capital is the capstone, which has a steep downward slant and is about twice as thick at the center as the edges. The bottom side has been defaced in several places. One inscription in particular, near the lotus petals, was written in ink in 1729. It is unknown whether this was merely graffiti or a record of repairs made to the pagoda in that year.

At the center of the platform is the statue of a figure standing on a lotus pedestal—seemingly receiving the protection of the four lions surrounding it. The statue's robes resemble those of a monk. They are draped over both shoulders while the bottoms of the sleeves fold over and overlap each other as they descend downwards towards the statue's right side. The instep of the statue's feet is just barely visible protruding outwards. A lotus bud is held tightly against the chest in the right hand, while the left braces it from underneath. The head is bald and the lips have been colored red. There is a short gap separating the top of the head from the ceiling where a circular lotus pattern can be seen, almost like a celestial canopy.

Body and finial
The body of the pagoda has three floors. Each consists of a separate roof and body stone, together resting on two-tier platforms carved into the floor below. The walls of the first floor are decorated with intricate relief imagery. A door frame with lock and handle is guarded on each side by a pair of Buddhist deities, which according to So Jaegu, symbolizes that the interior is a sacred place where relics have been enshrined. There are two Benevolent Kings on the west side (the front), Heavenly Kings on the north and south sides, and two Bodhisattvas on the east side, possibly Sikhin and Sakra. The second and third floors are much shorter, devoid of imagery with pillars carved into the corners. Five eave corbels are cut into the undersides of the three roof stones, whose eaves curl upwards at the corners. The finial has three parts. At the peak, a spherical decoration representing a sacred jewel is perched atop an inverted half-sphere, resting on the square base of the finial, or dew basin. This style is similar to that found on Hwaeomsa's East and West Pagodas.

Stone lantern
The stone lantern is octagonal in shape and constructed in the non-typical style. Its light box sits on a platform with a roof stone over top and a lotus-bud shaped finial. There are four rectangular windows in the lightbox, while the top of the roof stone and the underside of the platform are decorated in lotus imagery. The total height is 2.8 m high.

Instead of the more conventional stone shaft, the light box is supported by a statue. It is positioned on a lotus pedestal, atop a square base and faces the pagoda. The statue depicts a figure kneeling on the right leg, the right hand laid over top with its fingers spread open evenly. A cup is held in the left hand, possibly an offering of tea, resting on the raised left knee. However, Shin proposes that the cup has in fact been damaged, as an early 20th–century photo from the Record of Ancient Sites and Monuments in Korea shows that a spherical object once protruded from the cup, possibly representing a precious jewel. The figure's robes are draped over both shoulders. The head is bald and droops down slightly, not quite touching the ceiling above. The face has a rounded countenance, long, half-open eyes, a small nose, and a delicately crafted mouth.

The statue is protected from above by a conical cover stone on which the upper portion of the lantern rests. There is a faint but large lotus flower design on the underside above the statue's head. The cover stone is supported by three octagonal pillars on the sides and back. They are inserted into octagonal groves in the underside of the cover stone and rounded ones in the pedestal. Bak et al. and Seonjong Jeong argue that the pillars were not part of the original design and may have been installed later to add stability. They write that originally the light box may have sat on the head of the statue directly, like the stone lantern and pagoda at the former site of Geumgjang hermitage on Mount Kŭmgangsan.

Provenience


The provenience of the pagoda is unclear but by tradition its origins have been linked to the monks Yeongi and Jajang (590–658). According to the Hwaeomsa Chronicle (1636), Hwaeomsa was established by Yeongi in the fifth year of King Jinheung's reign (544 CE). Yeongi is reported to be a Buddhist missionary who came to Mount Jirisan after traveling with his mother from India. Then, in 642, Hwaeomsa was repaired and expanded by Jajang, who also erected a pagoda to commemorate the filial piety of Yeongi for his mother, inside which he enshrined relics brought back from China. In a slightly different account, The Record of Bongseong (1797), states that the pagoda was erected as a monument to Jajang.

Admittedly, it can only be assumed that either of these sources are referring to the three-story pagoda since neither Joseon-era book directly list it by any of its modern names. Moreover, this association with Jajang is tenuous since it is doubtful that during the Three Kingdoms period one of the great monks of Silla would ever have carried out renovations to a temple in what was then the kingdom of Baekje. Scholars are in agreement that, given the sculptural style of the pagoda, it could not have been constructed during the lifetime of Jajang. Most estimates place the date of construction sometime during the mid-8th century.

This coincides with the prevalent theory that Hwaeomsa was in fact founded in the 8th century, during the reign of King Gyeongdeok (r. 742–765) of Unified Silla. The historical Yeongi may in actuality have been a Korean monk from the monastery of Hwangnyongsa, in Gyeongju, who directed the hand-copying of the Flower Garland Sutra at Hwaeomsa from 754 to 755. According to the postface on one of the extant scrolls (only two of the original eight have survived), the work was carried out "to repay the love of his parents and to pray for all living beings in the dharma realm to attain the path of the Buddha."

Kim Juseong speculates that it was Yeongi's affiliation to Hwangnyongsa, a temple that Jajang founded after his return from Tang China, that inspired the association between Jajang and Hwaeomsa, with later writers confusing records between the two temples. He goes on to say that Yeongi's leadership of the scripture copying also makes it a strong possibility that it was he himself who erected the three-story pagoda, a view echoed by Kim Sanghyeon. However, Heo suggests that passages from the Hwaeomsa Chronicle describing a "Seven Story Memorial" in fact refer to the three-story pagoda; and since a memorial hall named after Yeongi once stood nearby, the pagoda may be where the remains of Yeongi were interred.

Some studies of the pagoda have pushed its date of construction forward even further. Song's analysis of the pagoda's apsara relief panels, concludes it must have been built sometime between the mid-8th and early 9th century. And after comparing the three-story pagoda's many similarities with stone pagodas of the 9th century, Lee hypothesizes a date of construction sometime in the first half of the 9th century.

Symbolism
The statue inside the stone lantern has commonly been thought to represent Yeongi, who is worshiping an image of his mother in the pagoda. The earliest recorded description of their identities comes from Nam Hyoon (1454–92), a scholar who visited the temple in the 15th century, during the Joseon Dynasty.

Hwangdunsa was founded under its old name of Hwaeom by the venerable Yeongi. There are large woods on both sides of the temple, while towards the rear stands its main hall, and past that, a pagoda. Brilliant and utterly spotless, the pagoda is surrounded by tea plants, large bamboo trees, pomegranate and persimmon trees. A large clearing traversed by a long stream can be seen below it. The pagoda stands in the middle of a field, held aloft at the four corners by pillars and the statue of a woman in the center, the pagoda resting on her forehead. A priest said to me, 'This is the mother of Yeongi, she was said to be a nun.' Out in front of the pagoda was a small stone lantern, also held aloft by four pillars and as might be expected, between them was the statue of a man. He too was holding up the lantern with his forehead, looking up at the woman in the pagoda. This was Yeongi. Of ancient Silla descent, Yeongi is known as the founder of this sect, after following his mother into the priesthood and coming to this mountain, where he built a temple and commanded a thousand followers.

Similar descriptions of the figures' identities are found in the Revised and Augmented Survey of the Geography of Korea (1531) and in A Journal on Mountain Life (1686), indicating that by mid-Joseon the symbolic interpretation of the pagoda and stone lantern was undisputed.

Kim Juseong argues that Yeongi himself constructed the pagoda as a symbolic expression of his own filial piety. During the reign of King Gyeongdeok, an emphasis on filial piety was used to consolidate royal authority; as such, the renunciation of the secular life by Buddhist monks was seen by Confucian scholars as a highly suspect departure from that ideal. The Uisang sect of the Flower Garland school reconciled this dilemma with its doctrine "The Twin Beauty of Filial Piety and Virtue". Yeongi, as a follower of the Uisang sect, built the pagoda as a manifestation of this doctrine, a continuation of the scripture copying which he lead at Hwaeomsa. Hwang et al. explains this act of filial duty as "a representation of the state of non-duality between the mundane world and the transmundane," that is, between those people of the secular world and those who have cut their ties from it.

This association with Yeongi has been challenged by some scholars. Jeong Byeonsam has suggested that the two figures are a representation of the transfer of the dharma from master to disciple. Jeong Seonjong has written that there are no other Korean examples of a pagoda ever being erected to represent an historical person. Furthermore, subsequent sculptures built in the style of Hwaeomsa three-story pagoda depict Vairocana, such as the three-story pagoda at the site of Geungjang hermitage on Mount Kŭmgangsan, and the four-lion pagoda at the site of Binsinsa in Jecheon. Shin Yongchul hypothesizes that the pagoda and lantern are a visualization of the Gandavyuha Sutra, the last chapter of the Flower Garland Sutra. Namely, that figure in the stone lantern represents Sudhana while the one in the pagoda is one of the 53 masters sought out by him.


 * According to one study, the drapery technique, the voluminous chest, and the face suggest that the statue represents a Buddhist nun.

Influence
The three-story pagoda of Hwaeomsa and Dabotap Pagoda of Bulguksa are two of the great masterpieces of the non-typical style of stone pagoda. It was designated National Treasure 35 by the Cultural Heritage Administration in 1962.

Extensive use of lion iconography has been made in Buddhist art as surface decorations or as structural pieces, the upright posture of a lion considered to be an auspicious sign of the Buddha. The earliest example in a Korean pagoda occurs in the 7th-century stone pagoda, where a a lion statue can be seen at each of the four corners of the pagoda's platform. However, the three-story pagoda of Hwaeomsa was the first to make use of lion sculptures in the pagoda structure itself, becoming the prototype for subsequent pieces built in later dynasties. Examples include: the pagoda in front of Hwaeomsa's Wontongjeon Hall; the pagoda at Geungjang hermitage on Mount Kŭmgangsan; the four-lion pagoda at the site of Binsinsa in Jecheon; the three-story pagoda of Gwaeseok-ri in Hongcheon; the pagoda at the site of Jurisa in Haman; and the monument to Zen Master Hwasan at Seonamsa.

The only other extant pagoda-lantern arrangement is the four-lion pagoda and stone lantern at Geungjang hermitage, which also uses a statue instead of a shaft in the lantern. Later examples of a two-sculpture arrangement from the Goryeo period include the octagonal nine-story pagoda of Woljeongsa, on Mount Odaesan, and the three-story pagoda at the site of Sinboksa, in Gangneung. Instead of stone lanterns, each have a statue of a Bodhisattva in a kneeling posture.

Hwang et al. write that the pagoda had an innovative effect on the design of subsequent Korean pagodas as this was the first time that human statues had been used in either a pagoda or stone lantern. Jeong writes that it had also hitherto been uncommon for Silla pagodas to have such extensive relief imagery, the apsaras and various Buddhist deities appearing to have born a heavy influence on subsequent pagodas built in the Goryeo Dynasty.